Mark Funk has put up an interesting post about hospital IT departments blocking Web 2.0 technologies. This follows on the back of a post by the Krafty Librarian who can't access YouTube and therefore a video for one of the doctors at her organisation.
How many of you have this problem and can't access Web 2.0 technologies? Share your stories using the comments botton.
2 comments:
We have this problem. Facebook, MySpace and You Tube are blocked. We have tried to get IT to overturn this (or even consult us in the first place). We have even said that they should just be on public access computers in the library (ie. not on my PC) but to no avail. They figure people should access these 'recreational' sites in their own time. We argued that many are o/seas staff, students etc. but still no luck. We are slowly working our way up the ladder at the minute but I don't like our chances!!
The number of viruses that gets introduced to the hospital system by the use of non-approved software and web sites has caused our IT dept to block much of what is on the web. I would not even try to get Facebook etc - they would be off limits for certain. As far as I can tell, the message displayed claiming that your action has been noted (in trying to access some non-approved site) and the implication that action will be taken against you is probably an empty threat. I'm not sure that anyone has time to take action anyway. Added to this, the computers supplied to most people have 256 or 503Mb memories, so any major programs run on your own PC and not the server either jam up the system or bring up the blue screen of death. I can't even get a 'panorama' that we have on our own hospital web site to work on my computer - it requires a plug-in.
However, if our government's ideas are picked up elsewhere, your hospital IT department may soon be a thing of the past. We have started on a shared services arrangement. First to go is the payroll people. Next seems to be IT. The suspicion (not denied by our boss) is that the people currently working there will be expected to implement the new shared services entity and then be sacked as they will no longer be needed. A lot of people are looking for alternative employment already.
I used to be able to get music etc on web radio, and given that I work alone in a room with no windows and very poor reception for conventional radio, this was quite nice - to keep me awake and sane. That is apparently now strictly forbidden - they can't see why anyone would want or need it. Of course there is music and TV in some departments - largely for the sake of the patients in waiting areas. So I have to bring in my own CDs or settle for the thudding of the air conditioning plant on the other side of my wall, and put up with the vibrations that run through desk and chair. At least they are not as bad as the vibrations in the ladies' loo also on the other side of the wall!
With the replacement of Pegasus by Outlook, all the emails that include web links are now useless unless I forward them to my personal email address and access the links that way - the hospital response is a .exe screen that stops access altogether.
In most cases, you cannot put your own software on your computer either - legal or not - and as they don't provide you with much to do your job, it means finding ways to do it without the employer actually doing the right thing and supplying the tools to do the work. The way Health is going in this state, with amalgamations and one ever more distant hierarchy on top of another, the chance of appealing to someone who actually knows what happens in hospitals grows dimmer by the day.
If you can find a way of rewarding the person who needs to give the approval for improved/reasonable web access with an associate professorship, they will move mountains for you. Unfortunately the trick is getting them to actually do it.
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